09 November, 2010
In September, a Danish daily newspaper ran a picture of an 18-month-old orphan from Nepal with hydrocephalus – the condition also known as ‘water on the brain’.
Mads Nissen
Mads Nissen (b. 1979) is a photographer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. For Nissen, photography is all about empathy - creating understanding and intimacy while conf...
Kathmandu, Nepal Victoria is taken to the operating room. The fluid in her head needed to be drained, and eventually her skull broken and remodeled to a normal size. Had the surgery been done at an earlier date, the procedure would have been significantly less risky. In September, a Danish daily newspaper ran a picture of an 18-month-old orphan from Nepal with hydrocephalus – the condition also known as ‘water on the brain’. She had been abandoned at birth and had no name – though hospital staff called her Ghane (‘Bighead’). Although the condition can be treated in the West, doctors in the hospital could not help her. Danish business executive Cecilie M. Hansen was deeply affected by the photo and decided to try to help the little girl. Cecilie visited Nepal, gave the girl a name – Victoria, for victory – and made arrangements with Nepal’s leading neurology clinic to operate, covering the cost herself. Because nothing had been done to relieve Victoria’s condition since birth, surgery was risky. In the time Cecilie was in Nepal, she bonded closely with Victoria, but eventually had to return to Denmark. A few days after arriving home she heard that despite doctors’ efforts, Victoria had died from heart failure.
Photo credit:
Berlingske
